Recently we saw the announcement of the revival of Polaroid OneStep camera. Polaroid Originals have launched the OneStep 2, an analogue instant camera for the modern era. The camera combines classic design with contemporary style and was inspired by the original OneStep from 1977. The new OneStep has a high quality lens, powerful flash and a long-lasting rechargeable battery giving you the ability to shoot regardless of your surroundings.
We caught up with Danny Pemberton the Creative Director of Polaroid, he said the main “goal with the launch of Polaroid originals was to pay tribute to the legacy of Polaroid while creating something new and fresh in it’s own right.” Polaroid Originals spent a lot of time researching into how Polaroid has impacted on visual culture, technology and design and Pemberton felt that if Polaroid was going to “take up the mantle as Polaroid Originals, the brand had to be founded on the same set of values that made Polaroid great in the first place.”
Rebranding an existing legacy and product can be a tricky task with many obstacles; “creating the visual identity in a tight timeline so the film could be packaged and shipped around the world, and finding the right balance between retro and contemporary” were just some of the troubles that faced Pemberton when launching the Polaroid Original.
In regards to the camera itself, the majority of the technology within the OneStep 2 are moving mechanical parts from rollers, gears, and switches to mirrors cogs and buttons, the OneStep 2 has it all, it’s a “very tactile experience and all these elements are huge design and engineering challenges,” Pemberton goes onto state.
The new Polaroid Originals branding and visual identity doesn’t stray too far from the already paved path however Pemberton went on to say that “rather than simply resurrecting old work we’ve tried to draw inspiration from the past in order to create something new.”
During the re-design and branding process Pemberton “spent a lot of time poring over the work of other iconic artists and designers from the era such as Saul Bass, Paul Rand, Dieter Rams, and Charles and Ray Eames. Valerio Nicoletti, a fabulously talented graphic designer from Italy, has been a key member of the design team throughout the process, and he brought a wealth of unexpected inspiration and references to the table. So while it’s true that much of the inspiration came from the Polaroid archives, we’ve also deliberately cast the net much wider, too.”
By creating such a universal and nostalgic product Polaroid Originals are “lucky enough to enjoy a really wide range of users.” Pemberton summed up the beauty of instant photography by saying Polaroid Originals One Step’s have “people shooting our [their] film who are old enough to remember the launch of the first Land Camera in 1948, and there are kids who don’t have any memory of Polaroid at all. I think it’s testament to the magic of the medium that this fascination endures across such a wide demographic.”
Pemberton most definitely summed up modern society by saying that “we’re living through the most interesting and exciting time in human history. But for many of us, the experience is one of increasingly full schedules, endless notifications and constant connectivity.Against this backdrop of fundamental and rapid change, I think it’s totally natural that we’d occasionally seek a way to escape all that and connect with each other offline. The beauty of shooting with Polaroid is that it encourages you to slow down and engage. More of your attention is focused on your surroundings and your subjects, instead of making tweaks to camera settings or selecting or editing photographs. I sometimes take my Polaroid camera for a walk around my block and challenge myself to take a photograph of something I’ve never seen, or someone I’ve never met. It’s surprising how many different things I notice. I find that I’m much more intentional with each shot. I notice the light more, and I interact with my subjects in a different way, and (best of all in my opinion) I slow down and wait until it’s the right moment to press the button.”
At the end of the day regardless of what technology has been invented or what millenial lives we lead Pembertons viewpoint that “some products manage to tap into something fundamental about us, whether it’s a desire to share experiences together, or joy of watching an image develop in the palm of your hand.” still rings true, ultimately underpinning the succes of instant photography.
No comments:
Post a Comment